How a Dentist Protects Her Family’s Teeth on Halloween

Dr. Apoena Ribeiro is a pediatric dentist and microbiologist on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She’s additionally a mother or father.

When her daughter was little and rising up in Brazil, Dr. Ribeiro inspired her to take pleasure in a vacation known as the Feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian, which includes kids amassing massive luggage of sweet. But she additionally had some methods for retaining the dental risks at bay.

Here’s what she did again then, and nonetheless does at present, to guard her household’s oral well being on a candy-laden vacation.

She minimizes grazing.

One sugar-filled night time gained’t sabotage your oral well being, Dr. Ribeiro stated — so when her daughter was younger, she allowed her to gather and luxuriate in as a lot sweet as she wished on sweet-heavy holidays.

Once she’d had her fill, Dr. Ribeiro would ask her daughter to kind her sweet into two piles: One for her favorites, which she known as her “treasures,” and one other for the rejects, which they’d donate.

The “treasures” can be stashed away in a cardboard “treasure box” that might solely be opened a few times every week (although as soon as per day can also be OK, Dr. Ribeiro stated). When the field was open, her daughter may eat as a lot sweet as she wished. But as soon as she was achieved consuming and it was closed, she can be reduce off from the sweet till the field was opened once more. Then it was time to brush her tooth.

These guidelines prevented Dr. Ribeiro’s daughter from grazing on sweet all through the day, which may give the cavity-causing micro organism in her mouth extra alternatives to feed on sugars and create an setting that might result in tooth decay. “Free access to the candy is the main problem,” Dr. Ribeiro stated.

But if the micro organism can solely devour the sugar as soon as a day or as soon as each few days, “they will starve,” she stated.

She occasions sweet consuming with meals.

The greatest time to have sweet is with or simply after a meal, Dr. Ribeiro stated. At that time, the micro organism in your mouth could have already crammed up on any carbohydrates from the meal, in order that they’re much less capable of reap the benefits of the sugar within the sweet. And you produce extra saliva whenever you eat, which helps to rinse the sugar from the sweet off your tooth. It additionally neutralizes acids made by the micro organism that may put on away at your tooth enamel.

For most households, having sweet with dinner makes essentially the most sense, since all members are more likely to be at residence and may brush their tooth simply after, she stated.